


Coffee and Smoke

by PacketofRedApples



Category: Control (Video Game)
Genre: Kinda, M/M, Oral Fixation, Smoking, Unresolved Sexual Tension, have fun y'all the game ain't even out yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-08
Updated: 2019-05-08
Packaged: 2020-02-28 09:58:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18754117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PacketofRedApples/pseuds/PacketofRedApples
Summary: Not all birdcages are psychical, not all clipped wings hurt.





	Coffee and Smoke

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TwistaLolita](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwistaLolita/gifts).



> Essentially, if they're not canon we don't want canon at all. Like, give me a throwaway line, fuckin hell's sake.  
> Twista and I were talking about them for like 3 days now, this is the fruits of my thinking. It's probably weak but god did I try. I tend to be canon compliant but the theories and headcanons we have right now? I don't see a way it could be beaten by canon lmao
> 
> Also, I struggled with the name so bad ugh. Fuck...

"Do you ever think we should just stop doing this?" It has been five months since his employment here, five months and three days. He thinks he’s losing more of who he is with every time he has been working all-nighters despite what he’s been advised, too taken into the work. His mind is running weirdly lately, making his state worse each day.

“Stop doing what? Running into each other in the lounge? You know neither of us can really prevent that…” Once officer, now director, Trench laughs at his own statement. It’s barely a laugh though and it doesn’t seem real. Darling raised a coffee cup to his face, sipping from it, in reality hiding behind it as if it was a shield; he averted his eyes from the other man.

“I just think sometimes it’s more than just questionable, our methods that is. I believe we’re doing the right thing, but there will always be the plausibility that I am wrong-- that _we’re_ wrong… Maybe we should stop and just…” He trails off, losing his thought slightly—he forgot the next word in reality. He’s tired… when was the last time he slept?

“And what—? Go to your family’s little cottage. Take care of the garden? You got to admit, you love this work. That would bore you.”

“How did you—Well, I do like it here… but sometimes, the things we have to do… they’re not right, you know?” Doctor Darling lowers his cup, glaring at Trench then as if to get it across much clearer. Zachariah pays no mind, instead, placing down his coffee onto the counter in the kitchen area. 

A lab tech rushes in through the door, visibly out of breath. Flustered and panicking. 

“I, -- um good afternoon, Sir. Ah, Dr. Darling something just came in and I—“

“Not now, junior.” Trench mutters, not even looking over to the direction of the youngster. Instead, slowly raising his hand to his jacket’s pocket and take out a pack of Marlboros, red.

“Upton, I’ll be back to you in second, all right?” Dr. Darling directs at the youth at the door, who nods and starts moving out the room, seeming fear not subsiding. 

“You won’t.” Trench mutters, taking out a cigarette.

“Excuse me?” Darling’s confusion appears less so genuine and a lot of something else. The other reads it like his old favorites book. Admires how it looks on the other man. 

“You. Won’t.” The punctuation appears clear as he raises the cigarette to his mouth and Darling watches closely as that occurs despite himself, before releasing a weak laugh like sound. Uncomfortable. 

“And why is that?” Darling's eyes do not meet the other’s, staring at the coffin nail instead and the way the superior's lips curled in self-satisfaction.

“Because I’m not done talking to you, that’s why.” He lights the cigarettes with little regard. Smoke detectors either don't exist here or don't work, all thanks to the director himself, which surely must not be a good idea, but... Casper can't take his eyes off the other... yet again, he didn't particularly want to. “Have you always been this peculiar, Darling? Too empathetic for your own good at times?” Casper tells himself he hates it, the way the other drops his degree, forgets he's a doctor...

“Yeah? Well, I really ought to go now. Upton seemed very concerned…” He furrows his brow taking his eyes away for a second to collect his clipboard. 

“You started this discussion, now you're running from it. Honestly, Darling, we talked about this upon your employment-- 'we have to be honest to one another,' didn't we?"

Casper halts there mid-motion like a child scolded. He didn’t want to affirm that, but it was the truth.

“I just think, what you advertise as being the correct behavior in the bureau doesn’t reflect the organization or its agent’s best wishes…”

“You’re so convinced that I’ll hurt them that you haven’t considered it’s the last thing I’d ever want to do.” Comes Trench’s reply as he takes a drag. Darling raises his eyes, watching the other breathe out white smoke. He still doesn’t want to trust him, but he is transfixed. It’s so easy to fall for Zachariah Trench at this moment, and his words, but he doesn’t know why. Or he knows why and is trying to deny it.

Then the man smirks, taking another drag of his cigarette and facing the doctor.

Trench steps forward till he closes the small distance between them and a tiny internal panic settles in Casper’s stomach. He tenses up at the proximity, determination in his eyes. He’s been in these situations plenty of times, running into heterosexual men who comprehend without him saying that he is not part of that camp, trying to intimidate him when he speaks against them—he just didn’t think he’d have to get it from his new employer. He hopes the hit or insult comes quick and he can move on from this, but it doesn’t come. Instead of it the other stares at him for a second, smoke coming out of his mouth before he brings up a cigarette again and takes a puff of it, other hand rising to Darling’s cheek. It stops there, gently holding it, which results in Casper attempting to speak, ask what’s going on, but Zachariah as if knowing this will come finished his drag and smoothly but quickly moved into what space remained between them.

Exhales, as Darling’s breath hitches and he inhales some of the smoke.

Trench walks away.

“You looked like you needed it; wouldn’t stop staring.” He explains before he rounds the corner of the door and disappears somewhere in the hall. Shocked, Darling stands there—before he reacts with a shiver, but it most likely wasn’t the worst of the reactions he is having right now. With a gulp and sense of guilt, he places down the coffee cup on the table and leans against it.

He needs a good night's sleep to even start to understand what had just happened.


End file.
